Year in review: 5 stories to remember in Pa. politics

So that's it for 2012. Another 365¼ days are just about in the books. And it's nearly time for a new year filled with the promise of better things and fresher scandals.

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By John L. Micek

poconorecord.com

By John L. Micek

Posted Dec. 31, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By John L. Micek
Posted Dec. 31, 2012 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

So that's it for 2012. Another 365¼ days are just about in the books. And it's nearly time for a new year filled with the promise of better things and fresher scandals.

But before we bid adieu, here are the top five Pennsylvania political stories of 2012.

Pennsylvania was thrust into the national spotlight as forces on both sides of the state's controversial voter identification law squared off before Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson, a onetime Northampton County jurist.

The question: Whether Simpson should grant a request for a temporary injunction filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups, which argued that the Republican-written law requiring people to show photo identification to vote would disenfranchise tens of thousands — minorities, the elderly and students — who traditionally vote Democrat.

Lawyers for the state argued that they'd made their best efforts to get proper identification into the hands of voters who needed it by Election Day.

In October, Simpson ruled that voters lacking photo identification Nov. 6 could vote anyway and would not have to cast provisional ballots. Questions of the law's constitutionality remain. Simpson said he expects to schedule a trial for next summer.

In February, Gov. Tom Corbett signed a law imposing a locally levied impact fee on the state's Marcellus Shale natural gas industry.

It came over the objection of environmentalists, who had pushed for a tax tied to how much gas drillers take from the ground. The impact fee, meant to cover the public cost of gas drilling, has so far generated $204 million.

Critics also knocked the law, which calls for state and local governments to share the money, because it left it up to county governments to decide whether to impose the fee.

Seven municipalities filed suit in Commonwealth Court challenging the legality of limits on local governments' ability to zone and regulate drilling. The court overturned the zoning rules in July, and the state Supreme Court heard arguments in October. A ruling is pending.

Forget the old adage: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

Pennsylvania's five-member Legislative Reapportionment Commission modified it to: "Try, have your map thrown out by the state Supreme Court; try again, have that map appealed to the state Supreme Court; and then use the decade-old map you already have while you wait for the high court to decide on your revised map. And then maybe try again after that."

The commission (made up of leaders in the state House and Senate and a nonpartisan chairman) had a simple task: Come up with a new map of 50 Senate and 203 House districts to reflect population losses in western Pennsylvania and gains in the east.

This process was supposed to result in a long-sought single state Senate seat for Monroe County and a new House district to reflect Allentown's growing population.

But critics, including a Northampton County piano teacher named Amanda Holt, successfully convinced the Supreme Court that the new districts cut through too many municipal boundaries. The justices sent mapmakers back to the drawing board.

A few months later, the panel returned with a new map. Holt and her allies sued again. And with the clock ticking down to Election Day, the map that had been in place since 2001 was used for the 2012 state legislative elections. At this writing, the high court still hasn't made a ruling.

Kane, 46, a former assistant district attorney from Lackawanna County, made history on Election Day when she became the first Democrat and first woman to be elected Pennsylvania's top cop in the four decades that it has been an elected post.

Kane defeated Republican David Freed, the DA of Cumberland County, who was handpicked by Corbett.

She did it through a mix of geography, Philadelphia turnout, voter dissatisfaction with Corbett, lingering questions over the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal, missteps by her competition, her gender and hard work.

In November, Democrat Brian Sims of Philadelphia became Pennsylvania's first openly gay state lawmaker, winning the city's 182nd District seat in the House.

This month, Rep. Michael Fleck of Huntingdon County became the state's first openly gay Republican lawmaker, as he came out during an interview with his hometown newspaper.